The rice dyed black through the sleeves of the suit I tore off to boil the grains over a flickering fire barely glowing back to life through Hae-Won's ragged breaths. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGTXmOmwWf5
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She was on her hands and knees in the dirt trying to keep the fire going so I could blindly stir the rice balls stewing in water stolen from the hot spring. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUoXExdOvWx
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We had rocks stacked beneath it to keep it from the ground. Our only other option would be for one of us to hold the metal edges of the pot while the other stirred with a stick over the flames. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6WXYVjsTn
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In the cover of darkness, we couldn't risk someone seeing our fire. Holding up the pot a would expose it like a beckon to the watchful billboards planted around us. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY5rcESmDxH
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By cooking our first batch of rice in the cloth balls, it would be easier to hide if someone did approach. We could abandon the rest stewing beneath if we had to. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR0RzMDWJKp
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They also made for an impromptu plate.
If we were found, I would take that sacrifice so Hae-Won didn't need to. She had already done enough to last several lifetimes over. If anyone had to be caught and punished, it would be me.
The money earned from my display of lies was enough to get us a proper pot to put the rice into that I hauled home. I even had enough to get a small bottle of soy to try and give Hae-Wan a taste of something more than stale water, suit dye, and bland rice.
She refused to let me keep the fire lit. Her arms weren't built for stirring after the years in the fields had stripped her strength down to the bone. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFueHSo6Luu
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All she could do was raise a hoe and bring it down. Her bones cracked and shot pain through her body if she tried to do anything outside her routine.
It was a cruel consequence of toiling fields. She was ingrained to do only one movement to her death, so she gave her breath for a hot meal.
Her hacking coughs blew dirt over the flames and were inhaled to make her sit up, choking it out.
I abandoned the stick in the pot to hammer her back with sharp blows. She gasped for breath until she finally tore one in through her dribbling lips.
The pot collapsed from my disturbance, leaning sideways into the fire it crushed beneath itself. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrfDQUK5RLB
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There would be no way to restart it. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLMO4uZ2xV8
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Mrs Park had smuggled me two matches on my hunt through the markets for the pot and rice, along with the worn strip torn off the side of a matchbox. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbIbAYHT6uQ
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I had broken the first, and the second had created the fire that engulfed both matches.
Hae-Won smiled to me as she lifted her hand from her mouth, only to see her wrinkled skin creased with globs of saliva-coated blood.
The Red Rain had been taking its toll on us; Hae-Won especially.
My coughs only came in sparce fits if the cold air flared my lungs or dirt settled in them. I choked this morning until I could taste the metal of blood in the back of my throat. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc9FXRT7N3T
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I had to drink my stale water I skimmed the bugs from to try and smother the fire in my throat.
Hae-Won had been struggling with her health for a while now, but something tonight had flared up both of our lungs.
This was the first time I had seen blood from her.
"It's fine" she reassured me as she wiped it onto her side "this old girl isn't going anywhere."
She had me scared. I didn't want to lose the only thing I had in this life. She protected me just like a mother did and I loved her dearly for it.
I should have hunted down some medicine rather than get the rice and pot. She could have used it to get better.
"Beom-Seok" Hae-Won stretched a hand to me "the pot."
Heaving it back up and shuffling the rock back under, I could see fragments of bark peppered through the meal from where I had stirred it through. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuIUw0ePNyr
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I swiped up a grain and tasted it as Hae-Won's expectant face beemed at me.
It was still chewy. Half cooked and goopey from the water not boiling out the rice enough. The dye from the suit left a sour taste to the grain that bubbled at my tongue.
"Let the soy cover it up" Hae-Won wiggled a finger to the pot eagerly "its still edible."
"Just" I sighed back and snapped off the seal. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvZZ8coJZQo
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I scooped up one of the balls, feeling the warmth hug my fingers gently, and dribble the soy over them into the void below so I could try to tell how much I was putting in.
I was grateful she couldnt see this mess. The black dye had to be stained on every grain. She'd still taste the poison through the condiment. The rice still in the pot would be worse.
I didn't want to kill her. I only wanted to make it easier for her. The suit wasn't supposed to leak like this.
"Beom-Seok" Hae-Won chuckled when I hesitated with the dripping ball "has the Red Rain addled your brain?"
I forced a smile and placed it into her shaking outstretched hands.
"No, Mrs Lyricist" I retorted while untying the ball and fixing my own "I'm just worried it might not taste good."
"Its fine to me" she spoke through her fingers scooping the mess into her mouth "in fact, I'd like to have seconds, with more soy."
She liked it?
I unpeeled mine to pinch and shovel in a tender morsel. Immediately, the tangy soy smacked me in the face to assault my tongue while the dye turned the thickness to acid on my tongue and scrub itself down my throat, making me choke.
"You like this?" I coughed out, pounding my chest.
It felt like I was eating the rain itself. It was just shy of bubbling up my lungs like it did.
I could taste it as I breathed it. I hated it.
"It's quite nice" she nodded and held out the cloth.
I didnt want to give her the rice in the pot. I knew it was going to have the most dye in it from how long it had been bubbling away.
But, we couldn't waste a meal like this.147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT6L0L7QN2t
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I could make it up to her by heading to the hot spring tommorow to boil more while she rested her bones. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8mEund5nLk
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I didn't want to make her haul herself up that mountain after sweating in the fields all day.
I played Badminton and laughed. I married a woman today, like I would have when I was a little kid playing make-believe.
Did Hae-Won want to hear about it? Or would it contrast too harshly on her reality?
I had torn the suit so it didnt show how favoured I had been. I couldn't break earth while looking like I belonged behind a table, sipping tea and staring wistfully out into the sky. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpB46k5pq5f
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I'd fester hate in the others still glued to old scraps crusted onto thier skin. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk92COCn6jr
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I was fortunate because the leaders smiled down on me.
I was grateful to have a nice, new shirt to damage now. The longs will have to be torn down to better suit the sun.
Maybe I could give those scraps to someone else?
"So, they oiled you up like a duck, did they?" Hae-Won flicked her eyes to my hair with a cheeky smile "you smell like you ran through a field of pretty flowers."
"I was wierd" I admitted "they had us bathed and clothed to go play some game in the sun. They said if we smiled and were happy that we would get more."
That's how I got the pot; a proper one with handles. I laughed for it.
Hae-Won snorted and dissolved into giggles. She coughed and caught her breath to still giggle.
I smiled at her and decided to scoop more food for her to enjoy.
I'd make it up to her tommorow.
"Do they really have gold toilets?" she asked "and servents?"
"The servents, yes" I pointed to her while forcing myself to eat "they wash you and dress you. People look happy in the streets and wear such expensive clothes. I think they might be like us over there."
"Wouldn't surprise me" Hae-Won pondered "they play thier part and we keep them fed. Seems like everyone might be in thier own version of love from the Fearless Leader."
I never though of it that way. I just assumed that we were the lowest in the chain and that they lived above us, knowing that they'd never have to leave thier walls or dirty thier shoes.
They were better than us and that's the way things were.
Did they walk a little too perfectly when we passed? Did they glance up a bit too eagerly at the sound of a car, hoping to be rewarded?
Surely, it wasn't as hard there as it was out here?
We ate our rice in the dark like scared mice glancing for a hawk before going our seperate ways once more.
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Hae-Won greeted me the next morning with her usual gummy smile and chide comment to the Fearless Leader's face I swept clean.
We walked side by side along the road towards the fence of the fields in the distance.
Hae-Won was struggling. She shuffled along at a slower pace than usual and had to stop to cough into her arm.
I could see the blood growing there with each break. It made the crook of her arm burn bright red just from a few moments of light walking.
We pushed onwards until we were advancing on the fence before Hae-Won stopped again.
I rushed back to her to comfort her, but she wasn't coughing.
In the distance, at the shade of the wall, stood a man dressed in a crisp black suit with a suitcase sat by his feet.
What was he doing on this side? Was he some sort of official scoping out something to report back to his boss?
He wasn't dressed like military either. There was no red pin or sense of superiority about him. He was just a lost business man in a suit.
A dark thought danced across my mind at the sight of his clean clothing and oiled, black hair. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW38I3RaZzF
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I could rob the man of his suitcase and sell the belongings to give Hae-Won the medicine she needed. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzVhdtgX152
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I was no thief, but a man in dress shoes that immaculate couldn't be someone who ran any time in his life. He wouldn't be able to keep up.
"Maybe he squeezed through the cracks?" Hae-Won frowned to the little figure turning its attention on us now "someone will come and deal with him soon."
"I don't like it" I scowled to the emotionless man and helped Hae-Won carry herself onwards to where the others were lining up to sing praises to the Fearless Leader inside.
In a place where eyes watched from everywhere, the fact that the man wasnt already being bombarded by officials just seemed.... odd.
The thought of robbing the man didn't leave me while I cut the earth and helped Hae-Won scrape her piles when she doubled over to splutter into herself as the Red Rain showered us.
Of course, he wouldn't be there once we left the fields, but it was wishful thinking.
I was desperate. Hae-Won was fading and no doctor would see her. That would involve breaking through the wall and risking death itself at the slight chance they could tend to her. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkehglsLi9T
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And it would be pricey; the kind of money that surpassed even the little lump that had given us the luxury of a hot meal for our aching bellies.
I should have left the pot. Maybe I could try and sell it to someone else for a bit more to cover the cost of medicine?
It was nice while it lasted. With it being barely used, it would get me a little more.
Hae-Won deserved it. I could wait for things like pillows and pots.
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As everyone dragged thier weary bodies out of the fields to shuffle for thier sleeping areas, I saw that the man in the suit was still by the wall.
His almost featureless face turned to me when I stopped to make sure I wasn't going delerious from lack of water and the boiling sun cooking the chemicals of the Rain into my peeling skin.
"It's an Omen" Hae-Won clutched my arm to try and move me "maybe it's death?"
I chucked and looked down at her, moving onwards slowly.
"Death wears a dress-suit?"
She kept her eyes on him, still moving onwards.
"It's not normal. Its like he doesn't exist. Maybe he's not there?"
I looked again; the man in the same frozen stance.
Maybe she was right. The chemicals were frying my brain.
But, if he was there, I was passing up an opportunity to help her.
I pulled from her weak grip and took a step towards the man.
"Beom-Seok!" she hissed as she scanned the area "what are you doing?!"
"I'll just see if he needs help" I shrugged back to her, turning so I could still walk towards him while reassuring her "I'll be fine."
"Leave it!" she flapped her arms "it's going to be some sort of human trafficking thing!"
"And I'll be ready for that!" I called back, picking up the pace "what are they going to take from me? I'm in no shape to be stealing kidneys and lungs from."
I heard Hae-Won whimper as she tried to scurry after me.
"I'll be fine! Stay there!" I called with a smile and turned from her to start my jog towards the man.
There was no way he should still be here. He just stood there, smiling as I advanced towards him with all intentions of snatching up that nice suitcase and legging it back to Hae-Won so we could check the spoils in the cover of the dropping darkness.
Maybe he was too good to be true? I'd get to him and realise he was a figment made from Red Rain itself?
He didn't smell like the Rain though.
The closer I got, the more I could make out the soft scent of green tea and creamy lillies on his washed skin. It was subtle enough to be a fragrance from an expensive perfume I had never smelled before on any official. They liked sharp, bold smells to match thier crisp uniforms.
Was it foreign? It was too recognizable to be something from the West.
His teeth were so white when his face pulled into a smile at me. Fake, perhaps?
He had to have money on him to afford dentistry like that.
The suitcase was right by his feet. I could just....
"I was wondering when you would come to meet me" the man spoke when my eyes flicked to the suitcase once more "you look like you could use a break after harvesting poisoned potato fields all day."
I snorted.
A break. He was real after all. No delusion would be a jokester like him.
Was he just standing here, watching people lesser than him slave for a living?
What a sick man he was.
There was a shadow of a moustache shaved clean on his square face. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9SuRNux2rw
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His eyes had hints of bags beneath them and creased at the sides from smiling. There was nothing unique about his appearance otherwise. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDHZPlKB9Pu
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Like everyone else here he had one of the twenty-eight approved haircuts on his black hair. His eyes were brown and absorbed into the bleek landscape.147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLVMNwFp0iJ
Maybe he was lost?
My eyes darted to the suitcase by his feet. The man noticed this and smiled at me, chuckling.
Did he think I wouldn't do it?
I looked back to Hae-Won still stopped over by the dirt road I had left her at. Her featureless face was unmoving as she watched me before this man.
The man slipped his hand into his coat and I instantly scurried back in fright.
Did he have a weapon? Was he going to kill me for even thinking of robbing him?
I could hear the croaky voice of Hae-Won in the air. It was barely a whisper, but she was screaming for me to leave the man and return to her.
Perhaps I should? This was too dangerous.
I backed up more but stopped when the man slipped out his weapon of choice.
Two folded paper boxes. One red, the other blue.
The paper was that fancy stuff too. Untainted by fibres or dirt from the handmade mush used for signage. This paper shone in the light and looked immaculate, like him.
"Which colour do you want to play as?" the man grinned.
The light blue was at the front. A deep red hid behind it.
This had to be some sort of trick. He had to be an official using me for a sick trick to laugh to his friends about later.
Red was the colour of supremacy. This had to be a trick.
I looked around for the cameras and snorted at the man who kept his casual stance.
He had to have one in his button or something. Eyes were everywhere.
"You think I came over here to play games?" I pointed a finger to him "that I actually have the time for this nonsense?"
I had wasted precious time I could have spent tucking Hae-Won into my bed and dragging the pot back to the market to trade.
This man had fooled me. He probably had nothing in his suitcase at all. Why wouldn't he guard it if it did?
"It's just a simple game of Ddakji" he spoke with a smile on his voice "between friends."
Friends? I didn't even know this man. And Ddakji? That was a kids game; one inscribed in old textbooks about classical schoolyard entertainment.
I had always skipped those pages. Now, I was wishing i had been just a bit more distracted behind the desk as a child.
My face fell when I looked at his relaxed smile in the situation he was in.
He had to be special. The poor man had been cast aside and was just trying to get by with a childish mind set on kids games of his past.
The government was cruel to those born different. This man had to be one of them.
Why else would he be out here, dressed in a suit, holding paper squares, and carrying a case?
I could humour him and just play one game to give him some sort of happiness. The world was already cruel enough.
"I'll pick red" I pointed to the one at the back.
It was shielded. He wanted me to favour the blue at the front, but I saw through his trickery.
"How do I play?" I peered down at the square blankly that I turned in my hand.
It was so smooth. I hadn't felt anything like it before.
It even smelled nice. It was clean and crisp, like the uniform of an official dried in sun over a field of flowers.
"You try to flip my Ddakji over by throwing yours onto it. Allow me."
He held out his hand for mine I still had raised to my nose. I handed it over in embarrassment, seeing the dirt from my skin had left a stain on the paper.
The man cleared a space in the dirt and dropped his paper square into it. With mine in his hand, he wound it back and threw all of his force behind it to make the paper crack sound into the silence.
It flipped over to reveal its perfect folds.
"Like so" the man gestured to it with one hand before passing the red one back "we will take turns trying to flip it where it lands. It'll be one-hundred thousand a missed throw."
A... A hundred thousand?!
I laughed at the man and his absurdity.
He had no sense of where he was. There was no way someone out here had even seen that kind of money.
His brain was swimming in too much water. It had drowned all sense of reality.
The poor guy. The absolute fool.
"Sure" I shook my head at him, laughing "a hundred thousand."
The things I could do with that sort of money.... If only.
The man left his Ddakji in the dirt to give me the first throw. He even took a few steps back so I had room to get in a swing like he had.
This couldn't be too hard. This was some sort of kids game; I could beat it.
I mustered up all the stength I could in my aching muscles and hurtled the red Ddakji downwards.
My heart soared when I heard the crack, but the blue one didn't flip. It just bounced pathetically and laid there.
The man turned to me with his smile that suddenly didn't look so kind.
Was he being serious about the money? He expected me to pay a sum like that for something that had massive odds of failing?
If I knew he expected actual payment, I wouldn't have played.
He noticed my uneasiness and frowned at it.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm not exactly made of money" I grimaced back and left the Ddakji abandoned in the dirt "I can pay you with a pot and some vegetables if you like? I've got tonnes of rice left over" I jerked my thumb in the direction of my shipping container "I can even throw in my bed; my house even! Please. I can't pay you."
Everything I owned wouldn't even scratch the surface. I couldn't hold a debt with someone as unsound as him. I'd be flayed and skinned in some dingy shed for trying to skip my debt I took as a joke.
"You can pay with your identity" the man raised an eyebrow at me.
My.... identity?
He pulled out a silver lighter and struck it to make the flame snap to life. The lighter was so polished it reflected my crusted forlorn face perfectly.
"I'll take one-hundred thousand off for each fingerprint you burn."
"You've got to be kidding me!" I started to laugh again, but saw the man wasn't sharing my humour "you're serious?"
He nodded.
"Completely off?" I grimaced at the lighter he still held out.
"For a few seconds" he said with a little nod.
So, I wasn't going to lose my fingers. I couldnt work with them open and bleeding everywhere.
I took a deep breath and nodded, preparing for the pain.
The man flicked the fire to life and I held my pinky over it until it only just started to sizzle.
It hadn't even been long enough to cause pain when the man killed the fire and picked up his square to smash it into mine flawlessly.
It flipped for him, like it had the first time.
Was this rigged? Maybe I should have chosen blue?
I snatched up my red one to try again, scowling at the man.
Checking on Hae-Won, I saw she had left her position on the road and was off in the distance, shuffling home without me.
I was going to win and get her some medicine. Then I was going to make the man burn off his fingerprints too.
It would all be worth it in the end. I just had to win this silly game.
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